Irv Drasnin

Last updated
Irv Drasnin
Irv-Drasnin-Canada-1991.jpg
Drasnin in 1991
BornMarch 18, 1934 (1934-03-18) (age 90)
Charleston, West Virginia, U.S.
OccupationJournalist and documentary film producer, director, writer
Alma mater UCLA (BA)
Harvard University (MA)
Notable works
  • Misunderstanding China
  • Looking for Mao
  • Apartheid
  • The Guns of Autumn
  • You and the Commercial
  • The Radio Priest
  • The Chip vs. the Chess Master
  • Forever Baseball
  • Health in America
Notable awardsduPont Columbia, Directors Guild of America, Writers Guild of America, Emmy
Spouse
Dr. Xiaoyan Zhao
​
(m. 1987)​
Website
irvdrasnin.net

Irv Drasnin (born March 18, 1934) is an American journalist, a producer-director-writer of documentary films for CBS News [1] and PBS (Frontline, The American Experience, Nova). Among the awards he has received for broadcast journalism are the duPont-Columbia, the Directors Guild (DGA), the Writers Guild (WGA), and the American Film and Video Blue Ribbon.

Contents

Films

Film TitleYearNetwork
The China Films
Misunderstanding China [2] 1972CBS News
Shanghai [3] 1974CBS News
After Mao1976CBS News
Looking for Mao [4] 1983PBS/Frontline
China After Tiananmen [5] [6] 1992PBS/Frontline
The Revolutionary [7] 2012Independent Documentary Feature
Other Foreign Subjects
Apartheid [8] [9] 1988PBS/Frontline
Who's Got a Right to Rhodesia [10] [11] 1977CBS News
A Black View of South Africa [12] 1970CBS News
Voices from the Russian Underground [13] 1970CBS News
Cuba: 10 Years of Castro [14] 1968CBS News
American Society, Culture and History
Health in America: The Promise and the Practice [15] [16] 1970CBS News
You and the Commercial [17] [18] [19] 1973CBS News
The Guns of Autumn [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] 1975CBS News
Inside the Union [28] 1979CBS News
New Voices in the South1971CBS News
Football: 100 Years Old and Still Kicking [29] [30] 1969CBS News
Back on the Road with Charles Kuralt [31] 1969CBS News
The Twentieth Century: Synanon in Prison [32] 1966CBS News
The Chip vs. the Chess Master [33] 1991PBS/Nova
G-Men: The Rise of J. Edgar Hoover [34] [35] 1991PBS/The American Experience
The Radio Priest [36] [37] 1988PBS/The American Experience
Forever Baseball [38] [39] 1989PBS/The American Experience
The Earthquake is Coming [40] 1987PBS/Frontline
Hollywood Dreams [41] 1986PBS/Frontline
Catholics in America: Is Nothing Sacred? [42] 1985PBS/Frontline
The Other Side of the Track [43] 1984PBS/Frontline
Eye of the Beholder [44] [45] 1981PBS/Inside Story Special
Where We Fight [46] 1993 The Discovery Channel

Early life

Irv Drasnin was born in Charleston, West Virginia, on March 18, 1934, a son of immigrants: his father, Joseph, a U.S. Treasury Agent, was from Tsarist Russia, as was his mother, Clara Aaron. The family moved to Los Angeles when he was four years old. His oldest brother, Sid, was an architect, remembered (with Lloyd Wright) for the Wayfarer's Chapel in Palo Verdes, California, and for The Gardens of the World in Thousand Oaks, California.  His brother Bob played clarinet, sax and flute with the Les Brown Orchestra and Red Norvo quintet among others, performed in Carnegie Hall as a classical musician, was the director of music at CBS, and a composer and teacher.

Education

Drasnin is a graduate of Carthay Center Elementary School, John Burroughs Junior High School and Los Angeles High School (1952). He has a BA in political science from UCLA, where he was student body president (1955–56); [47] editor of The Daily Bruin (for which the paper was awarded an All-American rating as one of the top five college dailies in the country); and Men's Representative to the Student Council (1954). He also was a member of Project India (1954), [48] one of twelve students selected each year to spend the summer in India, speaking about America and interacting with Indian college students.

He has a MA from Harvard in East Asian Studies (1957–59) with a specialization in China. He taught in the Master's Film Program at Stanford University (1980–82).

Career

United Press International

Irv Drasnin speaking at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong (2012) Irv-Drasnin-at-HKFCC.jpg
Irv Drasnin speaking at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong (2012)

He began his career as a reporter at United Press International, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the eastern division news headquarters (1959–60), where the stories he covered included the steelworkers strike of 1959, the visits of Soviet leaders Kozlov and Khrushchev, Wightman Cup Tennis. He wrote both for newspapers and radio.

CBS News Broadcasts

In 1961 he was hired by CBS News as a writer for daily news broadcasts, becoming a producer for Calendar, a public affairs program with Harry Reasoner; and the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. His assignments for the evening news covered major news events, including the civil rights movement. He was the producer of CBS News coverage in Selma, Alabama including "Bloody Sunday" (March 1965) and for the Senate passage of the Voting Rights Act that followed. Other assignments included the Republican Convention of 1964, the successful presidential campaign of Lyndon Johnson, the funeral of Winston Churchill in London, the space program (the Mercury 6 flight of Wally Schirra), and the World Series, [49] Dodgers vs the Orioles, Cardinals vs. the Red Sox.

Documentary film years at CBS News and PBS

CBS News, 1966–79. PBS, 1982–92, for Frontline, The American Experience and Nova.

His thirty documentaries include a chronicle of modern China beginning with Misunderstanding China (CBS News), Shanghai (CBS News), Looking for Mao (PBS/Frontline), China After Tiananmen (PBS/Frontline) and The Revolutionary, an independent feature-length film.

When US-China relations were restored in 1972 after a 20-year hiatus, each of the three U.S. television networks was allowed access to film a documentary. Drasnin drew the assignment for CBS News, spending ten-weeks inside the country to make the film Shanghai. [50] In 1991, he reported in depth from China in the wake of the government's violent crackdown on student-led demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, China After Tiananmen.

His foreign reporting [51] also covered southern Africa and the last stands of white colonial rule in Who's Got A Right to Rhodesia (CBS News) and in Apartheid (PBS/Frontline).

Mr. Drasnin's domestic topics include The Guns of Autumn (CBS News), You and the Commercial (CBS News), Health in America (CBS News), Inside the Union (CBS News), The Radio Priest (PBS/The American Experience), The Chip vs The Chess Master (PBS/Nova), and Forever Baseball (PBS/The American Experience.).

Personal life

He is married to Xiaoyan Zhao, former senior vice president and global polling director for New York-based GfK Roper Public Affairs. The couple has lived in New York City (1987–1996) and Hong Kong (1997–1998) where Xiaoyan was the founding managing director of Roper's Asia-Pacific Headquarters. They now reside in Los Altos, California.

Awards

AwardYearFilm Title
duPont-Columbia Award1972-73You and the Commercial
duPont-Columbia Award1970Health in America: The Promise and the Practice
Directors Guild1976The Guns of Autumn
Writers Guild1975The Guns of Autumn
Writers Guild1989Apartheid
Writers Guild nomination1970Health in America: The Promise and the Practice
Writers Guild nomination1972Misunderstanding China
Writers Guild nomination1990Forever Baseball
Writers Guild nomination1991The Chip vs. The Chess Master
Writers Guild nomination1993China After Tiananmen
Emmy Award1971A Black View of South Africa
American Film and Video Festival, Blue Ribbon1988The Radio Priest
American Film and Video Festival, Blue Ribbon1990Forever Baseball
National Educational Film Festival1993China After Tiananmen
Christopher Award 1974You and the Commercial
Christopher Award1970A Black View of South Africa
Ohio State Award1973You and the Commercial
Saturday Review Award1970Voices from the Russian Underground

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References

  1. ↑ Brown, Les (1977). The New York Times Encyclopedia of Television. Times Books. p. 124.
  2. ↑ Bill (February 23, 1972). "Review of Misunderstanding China". Variety.
  3. ↑ O'Connor, John J. (1974-03-08). "TV: Battle Behind News". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  4. ↑ Unger, Arthur (1983-05-09). "'Frontline' documentary; Searching for Mao's cultural legacy". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN   0882-7729 . Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  5. ↑ Van Horne, Harriet (June 2, 1992). "Review of China After Tiananmen". Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
  6. ↑ Goodman, Walter (1992-06-02). "Review/Television; In China, Softening the Hard Line". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  7. ↑ Sellers, Irv Drasnin Lucy Ostrander Don, The Revolutionary (Documentary), Stourwater Pictures, retrieved 2021-03-03
  8. ↑ Biancullli, David (December 14, 1987). "Review of PBS/Frontline: Apartheid". New York Post.
  9. ↑ Mink, Eric (December 14, 1987). "Review of PBS/Frontline: Apartheid". The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
  10. ↑ O'Connor, John J. (1977-03-28). "TV: A Documentary on Rhodesia". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  11. ↑ Van Horne, Harriet (April 4, 1977). "Review of Who's Got a Right to Rhodesia". New York Magazine.
  12. ↑ Gardella, Kay (December 16, 1970). "Review of A Black View of South Africa". The New York Daily News.
  13. ↑ Roberts, Chalmers M. (July 31, 1970). "Review of Voices from the Russian Underground". The Washington Post.
  14. ↑ Musco, Don (November 19, 1968). "Review of Cuba: 10 Years of Castro". The Hollywood Reporter.
  15. ↑ Gould, Jack (1970-04-21). "TV: Nixon's Vietnam Talk Assayed by Networks". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  16. ↑ Shain, Percy (April 21, 1970). "Review of Health in America: The Promise and the Practice". Boston Globe.
  17. ↑ O'Connor, John J. (1973-04-26). "TV:Those Commercials". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  18. ↑ Sharbutt, Jay (April 26, 1973). "Review of You and the Commercial". Baltimore Sun (Associated Press).
  19. ↑ "Review of You and the Commercial". Newsweek. May 7, 1973.
  20. ↑ O'Connor, John J. (1975-09-05). "TV: 'Guns of Autumn' Draws a Bead on Hunting". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  21. ↑ Adams, Val (September 4, 1975). "Review of The Guns of Autumn". New York Daily News.
  22. ↑ Brown, Les (1975-09-06). "CBS Hunting Show Loses Ads After Gun-Club Calls". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  23. ↑ O'Connor, John J. (1975-09-14). "Tv View". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  24. ↑ Drasnin, Irv (1975-09-14). "A Producer's View Of 'Guns of Autumn'". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  25. ↑ Rather, Dan. "The Guns of Autumn". danratherjournalist.org. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  26. ↑ "CBS News Special Report: Echoes of The Guns of Autumn (TV)". www.paleycenter.org. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  27. ↑ "Directors Guild of America Inc. Award Winners". Variety. March 23, 1976.
  28. ↑ Davis, Earl (March 7, 1979). "Review of Inside the Union". The Hollywood Reporter.
  29. ↑ Loynd, Ray (October 24, 1969). "Review of Football: 100 Years Old and Still Kicking". Entertainment World.
  30. ↑ Page, Don (1969-10-22). "Review of Football: 100 Years Old and Still Kicking". Los Angeles Times.
  31. ↑ Kuralt, Charles (1990). A Life on the Road. G. P. Putnam's Sons. p. 12.
  32. ↑ Van Horne, Harriet (March 14, 1966). "Review of The Twentieth Century: Synanon in Prison". The New York World-Telegram and Sun.
  33. ↑ Goodman, Walter (1991-03-26). "Review/Television; Chess Riddle: What Value Calculation? Inspiration?". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  34. ↑ "Review of G-Men: The Rise of J. Edgar Hoover". Time Magazine. November 18, 1991.
  35. ↑ Goodman, Walter (1991-11-18). "Review/Television; The Image and Reality Of Hoover and His F.B.I." The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  36. ↑ O'Connor, John J. (1988-12-13). "Review/Television; Father Coughlin, 'The Radio Priest'". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  37. ↑ Van Horne, Harriet (December 10–17, 1988). "Review of The Radio Priest". Total Television.
  38. ↑ Rosenberg, Howard (November 7, 1989). "Review of Forever Baseball". Los Angeles Times.
  39. ↑ Voorhees, John (November 7, 1989). "Review of Forever Baseball". Seattle Times.
  40. ↑ Drasnin, Irv (1987-02-03), The Earthquake Is Coming (Documentary, News), retrieved 2021-03-03
  41. ↑ Friendly, David T. (May 13, 1986). "TV REVIEW : DEAL MAKERS ON CAMERA IN 'HOLLYWOOD DREAMS'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  42. ↑ Drasnin, Irv (1985-04-23), Catholics in America: Is Nothing Sacred? (Documentary, News), retrieved 2021-03-03
  43. ↑ Drasnin, Irv (1984-05-07), The Other Side of the Track (Documentary, News), retrieved 2021-03-03
  44. ↑ O'Connor, John J. (1981-12-11). "TV Weekend; VIETNAM VETERANS SPEAK; CHRISTMAS SPECIALS BEGIN". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  45. ↑ Legro, Ron (December 12, 1981). "Review of Eye of the Beholder". Milwaukee Sentinel.
  46. ↑ Bianculli, David (July 29, 1993). "Review of Why We Fight". New York Daily News.
  47. ↑ "Historical Roster of Elected Student Body Officers" (PDF). University of California, Los Angeles. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 15, 2020.
  48. ↑ "They Told India the Truth about America". Reader's Digest. May 1955.
  49. ↑ Broun, Haywood Hale (1979). Tumultuous Merriment. Richard Marek Publishers, NYC. p. 93.
  50. ↑ Terrill, Ross (1975). Flowers on an Iron Tree: Five Cities of China. Little, Brown & Co. pp. 93–94.
  51. ↑ Drasnin, Irv (November 12–18, 1977). "The Welcome Mat Was Slippery". TV Guide.
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